Victor's Science Blog

Charity Fair Project Blog: Victor N. 8B Above : Our Charity Fair Trifold (Created in Elective) Summary To start off, this is my second and last Charity Fair in the AdVENTURE program. My group, Riccardo, Sohini, and I chose to help World of Children charities, by making fortune cookies. I learned that we should always work as a team, whether we are at school or at home. When we were looking for the charity statistics, we learned that not all charities will post past tax and revenue information. While working on the test product, we learned that we needed to change our unit of measurements, from ounces to tablespoons. Personally, I have learned so much from doing this project, from choosing a charity, finding different costs and statistics, thinking of an item to make, making a test product, presentations, and to putting all the money into a special cause. I learned one big thing, Practice Makes Perfect . Backward-Looking During this project, we have encountered minor problems...

Should We Bring Back Extinct Species? by: Victor N. 8B Heard of de-extinction? De-extinction is the process of resurrecting dead species. Now, why are we even thinking of bringing back extinct species? Isn't it humanity the reason why some species are extinct? Isn't over-population the reason for global warming? So if you bring extinct species back, aren't you populating the Earth even more? We shouldn't bring back extinct species, because the risk of hurting the environment is much higher than improving it. Scientists are working together to bring back extinct species through DNA, cloning, breeding, and genome editing. In the Reawakening Extinct Species article (source 4), scientists used the cloning method to bring create a bucardo kid. They transferred the nucleus of cells into different cells and used electricity to grow embryos. Unfortunately, the bucardo kid died few minutes after its birth. Using this method, the chances of the bucardo kids surviving...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Image Location : Source 2 Summary De-extinction is the process of resurrecting dead species. Scientists are working together to bring back extinct species through DNA, cloning, breeding, and genome editing. They are using lots of money to use de-extinction to bring back dead species, like the woolly mammoth as shown in the picture above. In the Reawakening Extinct Species  article (source 4), scientists used the cloning method to bring create a bucardo kid. Unfortunately, the bucardo kid died few minutes after its birth. They also used the cloning method to bring back frogs, that became extinct because of chytrid fungus. In the We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species  article (source 3) Steph Yin said, woolly mammoths can theoretically  “punch down the snow in the winter time allowing cold air to come in and in the summertime, they would knock down trees which are very absorbent and release the grasses.” In conclusion, de-extinction is...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Image : Journey of Fortune Cookies Map Summary Air pollution can be caused by many things and can really affect the environment. A common way pollution can be caused is through transportation, like vehicles, trains, boats, and planes. Materials in the products we buy, go through a process and travel through a lot of places. You can find how far your product traveled by checking where it's made. When you have found how many miles the product, you can find the carbon footprint. For each mile the product travel, it emits a number of grams of CO2 per kilogram of raw material. This is the amount of CO2 emitted and released in the air, during the trip of your product. The process of a product, like transporting it, is a common way air pollution is caused. S&EP: Using Models / Mathematics This week, my group and I used models when we create our map for our Journey of Fortune Cookies. We created this map to represent the distance that our mate...

FLUXX Mod Project Blog: Victor N. 8B Our FLUXX cards in play. Summary Through this project, we were to work with a partner to create a Fluxx mod. In the Fluxx mod, there are 16+  Keepers , which helps you accomplish the 24+  Goal  and win. Throughout the game, you have to follow the 1  Basic Rule  and the 16+  New Rules  that player put down. 4+  Creepers prevent you from winning and 16+  Action cards is what you have to do. Me and my partner's Fluxx mod topic is Genetics. We had some common key concepts for our keepers like: DNA, genes, phenotypes, and Punnett Square. We use what we know to create relationships between the keepers, for the go als. Fertilization and Mutation make up Reproduction. Whoever has those 2 cards, wins. Fertilization and Mutation make up Reproduction, because reproduction is creating new organisms called offsprings, from their parents. Fertilization help initiate the development of the offspring, and mutatio...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B GOALS KEEPERS Summary Starting this new project seems interesting. We have to work with a partner to make a deck of Fluxx cards with key concepts of a science topic, due on Thursday 11/16. My partner and I chose Genetics. Our 16+ keepers are the key concepts of the topic. For example, we have DNA, genotypes, Punnett Squares, Protein, etc.. Our 24+ goals relationship between the keepers. In the game of Fluxx, whoever accomplishes the goal, wins. For example, DNA and Genes make up Cell Copy Machine. Whoever gets DNA and Genes in their deck, wins the games. Our 4+ Creepers prevent players to win. For example, if the Creeper card says "Protein," whoever has protein cannot win. Our Action cards basically just tells the players what to do, and the Rules cards are the rules of the game and keep adding on. This project should be fun to play at the end of this week. SP2 - Using models Through this week, I used models when my partner and I...

Evolution Project Blog: Victor N. 8B our slouse Summary This project was quite interesting to me. In this project, I am to work with my team to create a species that fits into its environment, whether is Planet A, B, C, or D. We chose The Slouse , because it fits in the environment of Planet A. The slouse is made up of the two main animals, sloth, and mouse. The slouse has the speed and claws of a sloth and is the size of a mouse. The slouse will stay warm by taking crevices of rocks and under its shell. The fur will also keep it warm. It will get its food and water by scooping with its strong and long tongue. The slouse will eat mostly insects and plants. It will avoid its predators by hiding under its rock and camouflaging with other dark surroundings. The slouse will care for its young by staying close to it until they mature. The slouse is placed between the mouse and fish. The large hunting cats are the predators. The slouse is very well at climbing trees but is not tal...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Designer Species Doc. Designer Species Presentation Summary Through our Evolution Project, we are to design our own species and organism. My organism is the Slouse. The Slouse is combined of the two main animals, sloth and mouse. The size of it is about the size of a mouse. The Slouse can climb well, like a sloth but isn’t tall. The black fur will keep the organism warm. The Slouse preys on insects and eats most plants. The animal has night vision so it can see while hunting for food and water. It will camouflage to avoid its predators. These characteristics of the Slouse is made so the animals fit into the environment, which is Planet A. Planet A is cold, dark, and wet most of the time. But with the fur, vision, and it’s strong characteristics, the Slouse will do just fine.  SP2 - Using models Our project is basically creating an organism that fits into a scenario. In this case, we created The Slouse: a sloth and a mouse, which lives on ...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Image Link Summary: You need a diagram to see how things are related to each other, right? Cladograms help us identify relationships between organisms. They show common traits and characteristics, and common ancestors of different species and organisms to see how they are closely related. In a cladogram (picture above), you can see there are 2 parts, the name of the organism and the name of the trait/ancestor. The more characteristics the organisms share, the "down the telescope" it is. In the cladogram above, you can see that the chimpanzee has all the trait below it, from common mammal ancestor to common vertebrate ancestor. The chimpanzee is closely related to the bear because it shares more common traits. The word species in Latin means kind. Species are groups of interbreeding organisms that do not ordinarily breed with members of other groups. You can classify life different ways, but to see the relations between different organisms...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Image Location Summary: There are four lines of evidence for evolution: comparative  anatomy, embryology, fossil records, and DNA. Comparative anatomy is looking at the similar and different features in different organisms and species. For example, if you look at the bones in humans, horses, cats, bats, birds, and whales (pictures above), you can see that they all have 4 parts in the arm. But there is a small difference in them. Humans and bats have 5 fingers, while a bird has 3 fingers. Embryology is looking at the development and embryos of species and comparing them. Fossil records are used to compare organisms in the past to organisms in the present, to show that they are different. Fossils records can also show how organisms acted and how that could apply to present plants and animals. DNA could be used to see how organisms are related to each other. Even if is a small change in the DNA, the organisms are still related because that is cal...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Image Link Links - News Article Peppered Moth WS Natural Selection Summary: Natural Selection is organisms that are best adapted to the environment, to survive and reproduce. Through this week, I went through the journey of how the theory of natural selection came-to-be to becoming finches. Charles Darwin is the person who had a theory about natural selection while sailing the HMS Beagle. He made important discoveries through South America and had a famous book called, the Origin of Species .  Darwin saw that birds on different islands acted the same, but looked different. He thought that there was a change in the DNA, and there was. "Every species exhibits variations." Traits are passed on from the parent to their offspring. If an organism has traits that will help it survive, then most likely it will reproduce and carry on that trait. And that is what natural selection is. This week is Manufacturing Week. Visiting 2 companies...

Weekly Blog : Victor Nguyen 8B Summary Evolution. That is, evolution is any change in the heritable traits within a population across generations, which means descent with modifications. Healthy living things can make copies of themselves. For example, A and B can mate and make AB, but if there is any change, then evolution has occurred. You can refer the Five Fingers of Evolution, to Mechanism of Evolution. The first finger or the pinky represents that population can shrink. For instance, if no one mates with C, then it will, so forth... The second or ring finger represents mating/sexual reproduction. This is where 2 mates have a baby(ies). The third or middle finger represents mutation - when there's a change in the DNA. The fourth or index finger represents movement/gene flow - when gene moves from one population to another. These four fingers are the cause of evolution. The last or the thumb represents natural selection. This is only one that can lead up to adaptations,...

WAC #1 - Is It More Important to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle: Victor N. 8B Now, is it really important to reduce? Reuse? or Recycle? But, which one is more important. For the short answer, it's important to do all of them. However, there is always one that shines out and is the most important of all, and that is reduce. To summarize, reducing saves you less work than reusing and recycling. I like to think of that's why they put reducing in front of the three R's. Reducing is the best thing to do, you don't even have to anything [to hurt the environment]. For every time you go to the store or restaurants, you come back with packaging materials such as plastic bags and containers. That right there ends up in landfills. According to Bethany Wieman of SFGate in her article of What is Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle? Today each person creates 4.3 pounds of trash, a day. By reducing, you are cutting back on anything, like getting containers, saving water and energy, etc... Again...

Geologic Time Project Blog: Victor N. 8B Image link: My phone Summary This project was quite interesting to me. I learned many things about the geologic time. We use the geologic time scale to look back at Earth's history in different sections. The biggest chunk in Earth's time is called eons, which is split in 4 eras. Eras is the second biggest piece in Earth's time. Eras are split into different periods, which is the smallest piece in Earth's time. The first era, the Precambrian era, is known to be the Age of Earth and Lava. The era is split into 3 periods, The Hadean period, The Archean period, and The Proterozoic period, which all happened about 4.6 billion years to about 600 million years ago. Throughout the era and periods, Earth was created through rocks, and large fragments of dust and debris. The second era, the Paleozoic era ended the Precambrian era and, is known to be the Age of Fishes. The era is split into 6 periods: the Cambrian period, the Or...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B Researching the Mesozoic Era Learning about geologic time Summary: This week, I learned many things, from the geologic time scale to the Mesozoic era. On Wednesday, Abram asked Ms. Garica, "What is the meaning of life?" She replied by showing the entire class a video about this: in one "year," the earth was created to having the technology that is today. This shows that our life is short, and that it can go by in a blink of an eye. Then for our project, we have to research our own era to then put together with the rest of our group. My era is the mesozoic era. I learned that the Mesozoic era is the age of dinosaurs. The mesozoic era lasted about 245 million years to about 66.4 million years ago, which was split into 3 periods: the Cretaceous period, the Jurassic period, and the Triassic period. At the beginning of the triassic period, Earth's continents were still welded together which is called the Pangea. That lasted  un...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 8B "Metamorphic Rock" "Sedimentary Rock" "Igneous Rock" Fossil "ORGANISM" cards Summary This week, we have learned many things. This week, we learned that geology is the study of the planet Earth and the forces that make and shape the Earth. Uniformitarianism, or Abram's principle are things that happened in the past and it help geologists understand Earth's history. James Hutton said, "Geologic processes that operate today also operated in the past." I also learned about the rock cycle; there are 3 rocks that are classified into three rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are made through fire, sedimentary rocks are made through settling, and metamorphic rocks are made through change. I then learned about land form. Land forms are the features of the Earth's surface. There are 2 plates, continental and oceanic crust. There are 3 boundaries, divergent whic...

Why I Returned to AdVenture: Victor N. 8B      I returned back to AdVenture for many reasons. I could have left AdVenture, and moved to another school like the other 5-10 students that did. But I didn't, I decided to stay and return here. I could return for the education, for the friends, or both? Well, I did both of the two options. For one, if I didn't stay here at AdVENTURE, I would have to go to my "assigned" school to where I live which would be Davis Intermediate. I can't go to Herman. And if I left, I would be leaving what I have, great teachers, friends and education. I wouldn't want to do that.  Secondly, I feel like this school/program is a good opportunity before I enter high school and college. I felt like at this program is not like any other. We are a STEM program, which I don't see very often. I feel like if I stayed here and took the elective classes here, like Engineering, I would be more successful in life, than taking Exploratory or B...

End of Year Project Blog: Victor N. 7A this is our project build/prototype.  Summary This project was quite interesting. Instead of writing about the whole project, I will be focusing on the science portion of this project. In this project, we are to look a different environmental accords, chose one and research different clean cities to look for that accord. We chose the accord, transportation and the city, San Francisco. We learned that San Francisco wasn't always a clean city, because from the all the vehicles driving around which causes pollution to the earth. But then they decided to resolve that. They did by having people drive more eco-friendly vehicles, like electric vehicles. They also suggest people to ride their bikes more. As you can see, San Francisco wasn't always clean city, but they decided to resolve that problem. Backward Looking I didn't really know much about this project, before we started. But I did know that urban village needed somethin...

Weekly Blog : Victor N. 7A Image Location Summary This week, we have learned many things. For example, we learned how to balance chemical equations and learned about different chemical reactions. On Monday, we did experiment. We combined baking soda and water together, it became colder. We combined sodium chloride together, it became warmer. When combining the two, it became room temperature. For the next two class periods, we had this worksheet that helped us practice. I learned that you first have to list out the variable, and draw boxes around the chemical formula. In this list, we compare how many atoms on the reactant and the product side. Since I am good at math, it was kinda easy for me to find the greatest common factor. The next two class periods, we did the chemical reactions. We learned about 4 reactions, synthesis, decomposition, single and double displacement. I learned that synthesis is when two or more elements combine into a more complex compound, decomposition ...